Stage 1 - February 2: Langkawi Round Island, 81.4 km

Alberto Loddo: Keeping the faith

Born-again sprinter like a duck to water at Underwater World

The might of Ceramiche Panaria Navigare's orange crush didn't seem to phase
Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni's sprint man Alberto Loddo today. In picture-perfect
tropical weather, the born-again cycling talent took full advantage of the Tour
de Langkawi's perennial sprint train to overcome multiple stage winner Ruben
Bongiorno and take the opening lead in the race's 12th edition.

"Until a kilometre to go, I stayed in roughly 20th wheel because we don't have
a great [lead-out] train," explained Loddo. "Then with one kilometre to go,
one of my team-mates brought me back to the front and I came off Bongiorno's
wheel with 150 metres left."

One of Italy's best amateur sprinters before turning professional in 2002 for
Lampre-Daikin, the 28 year-old was full of promise in his opening years, winning
a stage of the Tour of Qatar as a neo-pro before being crowned overall winner
a year later. But after that, success largely eluded Loddo, who quit the sport
in 2004 after a season with Saunier Duval-Prodir - "he went a little bit crazy,
didn't train well," said his current team manager Gianni Savio, "and so after
three years, he finished racing."

However in late 2005, when Loddo was working in a shop, a mutual friend called
Savio and asked him to give his mate a second chance - an incredibly rare opportunity
in cycling. "I decided to try him out, to give him this chance," said Savio,
"and last year [2006] he won six stages for our team - one in Venezuela, four
in Chile, one in France [at the Circuit de la Sarthe], and this year, he won
again at the Vuelta al Tachira."

And again today outside Langkawi island's Underwater World, he repaid the faith,
setting the stage for what is tipped to be a highly successful week for Savio's
Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni outfit.

"It's really great feeling to win the opening stage, since I'm now in the leader's
yellow jersey as well," said Loddo. "That's what I did in the Vuelta Tachira
as well, where there was only one stage for sprinters, and it was also the first
[stage].

"I'm happy with my form now, and I hope to keep this condition all the way
to the Giro d'Italia," he added.

How it unfolded

With the shadow of a massive eagle monument behind them and under relatively
mild conditions, a 136-strong peloton left the start at Dataran Lang at 0930
hours. Before the race got underway, however, the field was already two short,
AG2R Prévoyance's Philip Deignan and Sergey Kudentsov from Discovery Channel
Marco Polo both not feeling up to the challenge of the 10-day trial in the tropics,
and with an entire season ahead of them, no doubt thinking about preserving
their chances in upcoming races.

The journey to Underwater World was not particularly tough, with three sprints
and one Cat. 4 KOM en route to the finish, 81.4 kilometres later. At this time
of year, few riders are at the top of their game, and while a bunch kick was
the likely outcome, the sprint was going to be somewhat of a lottery.

As in recent editions of this race, whenever you have a rider by the name of
Koji Fukushima racing, you pretty much know what's going to happen. Friendly
as always at the start, his fearless, attacking style making him a celebrity
in this neck of the woods (far more so than in his native Japan), the 33 year-old
played his cards early and showed his familiar tactics ain't going to change
anytime soon.

Nowadays, the difference is that Koji-san is older and therefore stronger,
his locomotive engine and hardened legs allowing his trademark suicide breakaways
a small chance of success, as happened on one hot day in the 2005 LTdL. By the
first hotspot sprint in Teluk Barau (km 33.2), Fukushima was already away, having
left the field with Indonesian Herwin Jaya (Polygon Sweetnice) shortly beforehand.

The second and third intermediate sprints became a formality for Fukushima,
taking the KOM bonus at Teluk Barau (km 36.2) to boot. But it appeared Koji
wasn't content with two guaranteed jerseys by the day's end: he also wanted
to win the stage, and when Jaya dropped off the pace with 15 kilometres remaining,
that scenario appeared all the more likely.

Though with the majority of the peloton unwilling to see an opening stage breakaway
success, the Japanese rider was cruelly caught inside the 5km to go banner,
bringing the situation back to status quo. Unsurprisingly, Ceramiche Panaria
Navigare took up the responsibility from here on in and drove their sprint train
all the way to the line for their men Ruben Bongiorno and Maximiliano Richeze.
But on a slightly uphill finish, Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni's Alberto Loddo
was simply too quick, comfortably accounting for the Argentinean pairing, American
youngster Brad Huff (Team Slipstream) and Nikolai Trusov (Tinkoff Credit Systems),
who finished fourth and fifth respectively.